Review: A Memory Called Empire

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book as part of voting for the Hugo Awards this year. This book was in third place on my ballot. A 4-star review reflects my experience with this book.

A young Mahit Dzmare has been named as Ambassador to the Empire. Her nation/region uses memory implants to perpetuate communal knowledge and experience. Ordinarily, after being named Ambassador, she would have been implanted with the memories of the prior Ambassador.

He happens to be dead under troubling circumstances and the oldest copy of his memories is nine years out of date. The outdated copy that she does receive is flawed in some way. It eventually stops working altogether.

Mahit ends up searching for answers in a classic whodunnit style. The answers she finds may determine if the Empire will leave her little nation's region of space alone. They may also chart the future course of the Empire.

A modest nit to pick is that the Empire provides Mahit with a translator/facilitator that is a citizen of the Empire. The translator routinely puts Mahit's needs/objectives ahead of where any potential loyalty to the Empire. There are a couple of other characters that are citizens of the Empire and employed by the empire that similarly put Mahit's interests ahead of the Empire. That arrangement seems unlikely.

I found the book to be generally well written with engaging characters. While it was not terribly exciting to me, I can see where others might find this work to be an example of superior performance within the genre.

View all my reviews

My reviews of all of the 2020 Hugo finalists for best novel are here.